Take the Beckhams, Please!

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Irish Voice Sport

Take the Beckhams, Please!

July 19, 2007

THE story on Sky Sports the other night told you all need to know about David Beckham and his arrival in Los Angeles this past weekend for a new life as the brightest star in the Galaxy. The report centered on a statement from Beckham’s advisers, anxious at the time to dispel a story in one of the British Sunday papers that Beckham could return to the Premiership on loan when the American season goes into hibernation.

It won’t happen like that, according to Sky, simply because Beckham is to go on tour with the Spice Girls for their reunion jaunt around the world this autumn and winter.

At first glance it looked like Sky had just announced that Beckham is joining the Spice Girls for their comeback dance with the dollar all across the globe, and why not?

He’ll be about as appealing a pop star as he will be as a footballer in the minor league that is the U.S. MLS once the pomp has died down and the penny drops in terms of the standard he is about to play at.

Just a month after regaining his place in the heart of the English team and the hearts of the English nation, less than a month after finally winning a La Liga title with Real Madrid, Beckham is now the biggest fish in football’s smallest pond.

And he’s still as good as ever at putting that well paid foot in it.

This, after all, is the man who announced on his arrival in LA this week, “After the family the most important thing is the foot... is the soccer.”

You can bet it’s some time before he realizes that football is not the common vernacular for the game he plays in America.

And my favorite quote of the weekend surrounding Becks and Posh came from the Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke, who didn’t waste any time in putting the boot into America’s latest sporting star.

Plaschke wrote, “David Beckham is clearly showing up, not as an athlete but as a celebrity... folks are viewing him not as a leader of men but as the husband of Posh. Beckham’s appeal is as a tourist attraction, the latest Disneyland ride.”

Disney may sue.

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